


The Night of Hell (WT'19 No. 10)

by TheHirsch



Category: The Boys (Comics), The Boys (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Men Crying, Military fiction, Russian Armed Forces, Syria 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 00:20:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20921066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHirsch/pseuds/TheHirsch





	The Night of Hell (WT'19 No. 10)

Jurow sat in the ready room. It was evening and she had been out in the field early in the morning already. Suddenly the door opened and Luka Naumov, her assistant entered the room.  
“Utkin sends us out with the 36th. They got a huge group on the factory in the south of the town,” Naumov said.  
Utkin was their commander, he was the highest member of the medical division in the entire region.  
Jurow frowned. “Alright. It will be alright.”  
“Oh,” Naumov said as if he understood. “Payari is your husband, right? It is quite confusing since you have different surnames.”  
“Yeah, he’s my better half. Utkin knows too. And when he thinks it is ok; it will be ok.”  
Naumov glanced at her. “I’ve never seen you like this. You seem worried. But you are usually the one who cheers me up. Maybe it is time I make you cacao.”  
“That would be sweet. I’ll check if we have what we need in terms of gear. When do they want to head out?”  
Naumov paused from his cacao-making-efforts and checked his watch. “In twenty-five minutes. We’ve got enough time.”  
“Thank you, Luka.” Jurow gave him a smile and got up. She sat down next to him and watched him make cacao. Hell, she loved her job and Naumov got along with her very well, which was great since she had to trust him on the job. They got into many gritty situations out there. Just this morning they gotten caught up in a firefight between soldiers of the Russian infantry and terrorists, who were trying to claim the city for their extremist state. The Russians were in the region to support the locals with men and weapons.

***

Sometime later the 36th and Naumov and Jurow were out in the plains. They were hiding between the rocks and bushes while they tried to get the terrorists to surrender. There are five of them left and one of them is heavily injured, so it seems like the Russians have a pretty good chance.  
The factory was behind the terrorists, the squad knew that more were hiding inside. The factory was of value, but what exactly it is making? The soldiers didn’t know.  
The terrorists were armed with automatic guns, AKs, which work even with lots of sand.  
After hours of fighting the terrorists retreated into the security of the factory building where their mates were.  
The squad was still sitting at their location, waiting for orders. Payari needed more intel first. He turned to the lookout, a young female soldier of low rank, who was holding binoculars. Her name tag read ‘Chernov’. “What do you have?”  
Payari was a bolgy man with a long nose and five years older than Jurow. He barely looked at his wife. She was nothing more than his squad's doctor in this situation. He knew she was skilled and didn’t need him to look after her. It was the first time they ever had an operation in the army together.  
“I have movement, there are at least ten inside now, I don’t see women, children or civilians,” Chernov said.  
Payari turned to the two scouts. “You two check it out, I want to know how many exits and guards there are and everything else worth noting.”  
The two got up and headed over towards the fence and carefully cut a hole into it.  
Jurow took this situation to turn to Naumov, who seemed to be lost in thought. “You okay?” she asked softly.  
Naumov nodded. “You always ask that. I promise I will tell you when I have trouble with anything.”  
Jurow nodded and got up, she patted his shoulder in the progress.  
“We got confirmation, no civilians around. There is one small back door that seems to be blocked by containers for some reason. Two guards with the main entrance,” one of the scouts called in over the radio.  
“Understood, we are coming over.” Payari readied his rifle. “Everyone with me. Quiet, silence your weapons. Follow my lead. Jurow you go last, you and Naumov keep an eye on everyone.”  
They all nodded and Payari started moving. They all stopped around the corner, pressed against the wall and ducking under the windows, approaching the building from the side.  
On Pavari’s mark, they all started moving, the two at front shooting down the guards.  
The factory had already taken some degree of damage but was still sound. The soldiers opened the door and swiftly secured what was inside. The terrorists had heard the gunshots and were ready and taking no shit. As soon as they made contact they started to fire at the Russians. They follow down the broad hallway. The terrorist moved backwards and barricaded the door at the end of it. That the terrorists would run away was very unlikely since they wanted to hold the factory.  
It took minutes until they had broken through the door and they were meet with fire right away. The terrorists were in good cover behind the machinery and huge tanks, they fired constantly.  
Jurow was focused, she looked stern. Naumov was much more nervous about the situation. He stayed by Jurow’s right side always ready to help her if they were needed.  
After a few minutes firefight, one of the Russian soldiers got hit in the shoulder and fell to the ground, bleeding.  
Naumov who was closer to him dragged him to cover and handed Jurow the Israeli bandage, which she used to stop the bleeding.  
Meanwhile, bullets kept flying. She checks on the injured soldier every now and then.  
Suddenly one of the men saw an object landing between them. “Grenade!” one of them called out.  
Jurow reacted and threw herself over Naumov since he was closest to her. Just a blink of an eye later it exploded. The tank they are next to burst and all the shell parts had been blown across the room. The terrorists took the advantage to fire at them. They killed two soldiers right away who were lying out of cover. The rest of them was out by the shockwave of the explosion.  
Naumov had been unconscious only for seconds, apart from a few smaller cuts and burns he was alright, he took a few more seconds to realise the reason for his inability to move was Jurow laying on top of him. His ears were ringing. And the smoke of the fires around him caused him to cough.  
He carefully pushed her off him and checked her over, which caused her to regain consciousness.  
She glanced up at him with her green eyes. She was clearly in pain but tried to get up as soon as she realised what was going on.  
The air was filled with fumes and smoke and they all were covered in the contents of the tank.  
Jurow coughed hard as soon as she sat up. She realised how hurt she was and that her vest had literally saved her life. It had caught most of the shrapnel, smaller ones had made though and also covered her arms and legs. And the power of the shrapnel had been absorbed and evenly spread but she had a few cracked or even broken ribs from it. Her chest hurt like hell. She grabbed them under their armpits to get them out of the smoke.  
The terrorists had ran, realising that the fire itself could kill them.  
Naumov saw what Jurow did and did the same. He was impressed by how calm she was, everything around them was on fire, they could barely see anything and they could barely breathe, plus both of them were hurt. But Jurow seemed unphased, she seemed more worried about Chernov and him and the others.  
As soon as they were outside - it was night now - they looked for proper cover and choose the rocks they had used earlier, this time they left thought the main gate since the way was shorter that way.  
There was another explosion behind them, fire rained down.  
Jurow softly cursed. She could see darkness on the edge of her eyes, not good, she thought. But she had to do her part. She kept dragging the soldier with her, now noticing that it was Chernov.  
She set her down and leaned her against the stone. It was dark but she checked her comrade over for any major injuries and internal bleeding. Just a few steps behind her Naumov followed, he was carrying one of the scouts in the fireman's lift over his shoulders which made him able to walk faster. He set him down and turned around to run inside again.  
There were more explosions inside the factory, another set of windows burst with them.  
“Wait!” Jurow yelled followed by a cough, she already regretted yelling at all. “At least wet a piece of fabric with a bit your water ration or something.” She herself was not planning to run inside again since she was not sure how long she could stay awake. She knew she was losing blood and she felt drugged of some sort. She probably wouldn’t make it out again that would mean the end for Chrenov and the scout. She had responsibility for them, Naumov though was less hurt and he could make it out again with out difficulties so she wouldn’t stop him.  
Naumov glanced at her and nodded. She was right about this. He looked at her, in the orange light of the fire. They were decent way from it now but they could still hear the sounds it was making. He turned around and took a piece of his keffiyeh, he had used as a scarf, and wetted it with a bit of water from his ration while running towards the building. But he froze.  
A figure came out of the doors, coughing heavily, it was clearly Payari. He had made it out. He had been partially on fire, judging by the but marks on his uniform. A big explosion inside the building sent him to his knees. With shaking hands he grabbed the radio.  
Jurow took a deep breath and started walking towards him as carefully as she could in order to not lose balance. Everything hurt her and she was dizzy. She had to make sure he was alright.  
Naumov looked at Jurow as if he was waiting for further orders, he stood there. The recent explosion had told him that it was a horrible idea to go back inside.  
“This is Podpolkovnik Payari of the 36th. Base, do you read me?” Payari said and let go of the radio.  
“Payari. I read you. Report.” It was Gavrilyuk, his direct commander.  
“There was an explosion, all the terrorists are dead or ran away. The factory is destroyed for the most part. There could chemicals leaking out.” Payari looked around and noticed Jurow, slowly coming at him. Her sight made him look relieved. He was glad she had made it out of there. She was alive and he had to make sure that she would make it out even though the circumstances were just getting worse, he knew that.  
He looked at Naumov, with his help she sure would make it the two were a great team.  
“Were you and your men inside when it blew up? How many of them are alive?” Gavrilyuk asked.  
“Yes, I was inside and my men as well.” Payari glanced at his wife. “I'm the only one who is still alive. There was a huge explosion, none of them could have survived that. I'm injured myself, I was only lucky to not be dead.”  
“Understood. Stay where you are, two minutes and the chopper is there to pick you up. “  
“Understood. I'll stay right here, at the main gate. Over.”  
Jurow slowly approached. She seemed to be confused by Dimitrij Payari’s words. “What the hell is going on? We are five survivors. Us, Naumov and two others.”  
Payari raised a hand to motion her to stop, not to come closer. His eyes were tearing up but it was not really visible in the extreme lighting. He already knew that they would come for him and not in a good way.  
“Hide! If you two make it the other two might have a chance too. Take them far away from here. You are ranked highest, you are in charge now. If they find out anyone made it out alive they will turn every stone until they found you. This is above your paygrade but what they made in there was not just vaccines. Leave the country, but don’t go back to Russia. You are smart. I’ll try to contact you when I can somehow. Or you try to reach out when I am out of here.” He glanced at her and something suggest that he was not kidding.  
But Jurow kept coming closer she sped up until she was running and almost tackled him into a hug.  
Payari couldn’t do anything but to hug her back. He can feel how she was trembling. He saw her blood on his hands after touching her back.  
“You are bleeding,” he said softly.  
“I know,” she whispered. She felt how tense he was, he was scared as hell. She had never seen him scared like this. “I've got other worries at the moment. You are pretty bumped up too.”  
Jurow could hear her heart beat in her chest and how it skipped beats and how her chest felt too small.  
“Just get Naumov and the others away from here and let him fix you up. Try your best to make it out alive, no matter what, okay?” His voice was breaking; he was sobbing.  
They could hear a helicopter approach, it was still far away but it could be here quickly. Payari tensed up. “Just go. Talk to you later.”  
Jurow hastily kissed his cheek and then turned around to run, she just ran, towards the others and away from him.  
Naumov had watched he rushed towards her to help if needed, seeing that she was stumbling. The moment he had reached her she passed out.Naumov scooped her up to swiftly carry her into cover. Not just his boss, she was his best friend, they were serving alongside each other for years now.  
He set her down and made sure her airways were clear and bent her head back so her tongue wouldn’t be in the way. He himself felt like he was drugged and strangely nauseous, but he was not hurt in the way she was.  
He moved to check on the other two, when Jurow woke up again, feeling worse than before. All of them were dealing with smoke inhalation and the poisoning of whatever they had been exposed to in there.  
They could now see the beam of light the helicopter sent towards the ground, searching it until it stopped right above Payari. Jurow moved as if she was trying to get up but Naumov held her back and held his finger in front of his lips.  
Jurow looked through the branches of the dense bushes towards the factory. The flames were now coming out of the roof, several meters high. The world seemed frozen for a few seconds: The flames, the bright white light from the helicopter and the burnt uniformed figure of Payari kneeling on the dry road between the open wings of the rusty gate, the flaming inferno behind him. He looked around just not up into the light, for a second Jurow though he was locking eyes with her. Even though she was not visible between the green branches from where he was. That second there was a blinding flash, exactly where he had been. And another row of them inside the factory. The helicopter had fired several small missiles. There were flames but nothing more between the wings of the gate, nothing that seemed human. He was gone.  
Jurow was frozen in place, thirty shades paler than before. Her medical distress made it impossible to scream, she would have otherwise.  
The helicopter circled a few times over the factory, looking for life, thankfully not spotting the four, then it turned and flew away. Naumov had embraced Jurow, scared she would jump up and do something stupid. She was hyperventilating in abnormally shallow breaths.  
“Natasha. Breathe. In….” Naumov inhaled deeply and waited a few seconds. “And out.”  
He knew that they had to get away from here, further away, as fast as possible. But at the moment he was the only one who was at least somewhat able to walk.  
He kept coaching her while sitting her up to get rid of her vest, he could not cut it, so no parts would be left to find later. He turned on his red headlamp, on the left of his helmet and cursed softly. There was a huge lesion on her back, lots of burns and she sure had a few fractured ribs. Her arms and shoulders and even legs had medium to smaller sized cuts and burns. She seemed to have internal bleeding and her blood pressure was derailing, it was too low, her heart was stumbling and beating very fast.  
Treat first what kills first. That’s what he had learned. He started to try and stop the bleeding on the bigger cuts and shrapnel wounds as good as he could in low light. Most of those hits she had taken for him. She needed to go to a field hospital at least, this was nothing anyone could fix out here. Though Payari’s orders had been clear and Naumov had just seen how he had been killed by their own comrades.  
Naumov took her stethoscope to check if she had a pneumothorax or other difficulties with her lungs. Her breathing sounds laboured but more with a wheezing sound. Nothing that indicated a pneumothorax. She seemed to be actively trying to slow down her breathing but there were so many feelings (mostly despair and dread) and the fact that her injury made it even harder to calm down.  
“Are you in pain?” Naumov asked her quietly. He was not allowed to give pain medication without a doctor ordering it but this was an emergency and they were screwed anyway.  
Jurow nodded weakly. She was still trying to calm down her breathing but instead she kept breathing way too fast and fighting for air. The pain in her chest wasn’t making it easier. She felt that something was off, that she was in a horrible state.  
Naumov thought about giving her a more permanent port but then decided against it only giving her an injection with pain control medication. She was in horrible shape. Probably due to her injuries but also because of whatever they all had been exposed to. It messed with her vitals and also with his and the ones of the other two. He was not really hurt maybe it was easier for him to deal with it.  
The other two were constantly fading in and out of unconsciousness. They were hurt less than Jurow but seemed to have trouble with the substance. They too were dealing with a messed up heart rhythm. Naumov had not seen anything like it before. Since he didn’t know what it was he could not even imagine a safe way to stop it. This would be something for Jurow, but she was far from being able to solve this riddle, at the moment.  
“We need to get away from here,” she whispered after Naumov had finished the injection.  
“I got three people who can’t walk, we can’t. You all need to be treated in a hospital and not out here in the field. I mean I could take one by one, try to hide you in the woods but we can’t go far and they will still search the closer surroundings for traces of the terrorists.”  
“You can do that. But be careful. Don’t risk your health. Carry me last.” She was slow with forming the sentences but he got what she meant.  
“Why?”  
“Cause I’m in charge and I want to know that you three are safe.”  
“I can imagine why you two loved each other.”  
Jurow shot him a glance that could kill.  
“I didn’t mean it like that.”  
Jurow rolled her eyes and leaned back. After treating her injuries Naumov had put her shirt on again but her vest was still laying next to her, the less weight also got her some space to breathe. She felt dizzy and nauseous. “I gotta throw up.”  
Not good, Naumov thought. If they would find the puke and they would know that someone made it out.  
He started looking through his pack and handed her a plastic bag. She wordlessly nodded and took it.  
Next to her, Chernov went into a seizure. Naumov jumped and made sure Chernov wouldn’t hurt herself. Her vitals were crazy.  
“We're probably all gonna die from whatever this is.” Jurow said in whisper and Naumov looked up from work. “We don’t know what meds we can use and which not. All of us are hurt to some extent. And when the army would find them, they would kill them.”  
Naumov nodded. He knew all of this. “I’ll start with Chernov, I’ll hide her somewhere where the trees are denser and at least can’t be seen from above.”  
“Be safe, watch the --,” Natasha’s last words had sounded weird and now she was silent.  
“Nat!” Naumov jumped over and squatted down next to her. She was not breathing. He had to focus, what could he do. He pulled her down so she was lying on the ground. He checked her airways, there were blood and vomit in her mouth. He gently turned her head to the side to allow it to flow out.  
“Fuck you. I can’t do this without you,” Naumov said quietly to her. She was like a big sister, she had taught him so much and had been there for him. “Just now I’d be screwed. I know a shit about how to hide.”  
It was the first time something was this personal for him on the job. He pulled her chin up, so it was the highest point of her face, closed her move and tried to give her a few EAVs through her nose. His other hand was placed on the side of her chest to feel if the air was even getting into her lungs. He did five and then paused to take her vitals.  
“Fight, Natasha, just fight, man.” He did another row of them, this time he felt how she was breathing again. He signed and picked her up, gently. He started to run towards the woods and set her down as soon as he had reached the trees, checked her over again and ran to get the next one.

***

Jurow woke up and she felt really horrible, there was burning pain everywhere in her body. She was not sure how long she had been out but it was still dark and there were trees above her. Naumov had gotten her and the others to relative safety and covered her with the thin emergency blanket. The burning grew stronger inside her chest she couldn’t breathe and her vision blurred but she didn’t pass out again. She felt like she was burning from the inside, and then she could feel the stinging pain and the cracking of her ribs moving back into place. What was going on? She was not able to scream or call for help. She had cramps in her arms but managed to grab the plastic bag just as she threw up. It was mostly blood. The pain got stronger but then ended abruptly and the relief was priceless. She tried to breathe slowly and as deep as possible. She was not even sure what just had happened. She sure was still sore but the major pain was gone.  
Jurow slowly sat up a bit. The two others were still out and Naumov was sitting leaned against a tree. He seemed to be either out or asleep. Natasha got up and crawled over to him, she was not able to properly get up, she carefully touching his shoulder. “Luka?”  
Naumov jumped. “You are alive?!” He stared at her, her face had regained some colour. “You look better.”  
“You too. What do you mean by ‘alive’?” She carefully checked over the others.  
“Nat, you had a four on the GCS, I thought you would die within the next hours out here. I assumed that you had gotten a TBI even with your helmet on or something was killing your brain. I mean you were at least somewhat breathing on your own. I never intubated anyone.”  
Jurow looked at him, he had to be over accentuating. But she frowned as she noticed how Chernov was doing. She was incredibly weak.  
Jurow elevated her legs so maybe the blood-pressure would stabilise.  
She then saw how pale the scout was. She checked his vitals and found none.  
“He died about ten minutes after he set him down here,” Naumov explained., he watched Jurow. “Had already think about how to get this done. Your BP was a mess, you have an internal hemorrhage, I thought I was about to lose you.”  
Jurow looked at him, he was crying. She got back to him and pulled him into a hug. “I have no idea what just happened, but my ribs grew back into place.”  
He let go of her and checked her over again. She was in her undershirt, her vest and the rest of her uniform were still around but Naumov had had to take it off in order to treat her injuries properly.  
“Did this really happen? Did they kill him? Did the factory blow up?” Natasha shivered.  
“It did. I’m so sorry, Natalya.” Naumov bent over to pick up her blanket so he could wrap her up into it.  
“How are you doing?” Jurow asked him.  
“I feel like it is a bad dream. I was struggling with breathing earlier but I think it is okay now.”  
Jurow nodded and pulled her knees to her chest. “I’m glad you are alive,” she said quietly.  
Naumov nodded and pulled her close to warm her and comfort her. “We three now need to stick together.”  
“Yeah….” Jurow whispered.


End file.
